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Five ways to cut HVAC energy before you spend a penny on plant
Schedules, setpoints, dead bands, optimum start and sequencing. The unglamorous wins hiding in your existing BMS.
EcoNex engineering team • 15 January 2026 • 6 min read
Before anyone specifies a new chiller, it is worth checking what the existing controls are being asked to do. On almost every estate we survey, there is double-digit energy waste locked up in settings nobody has revisited since handover.
The five checks
- Occupancy schedules that match how the building is actually used today
- Heating and cooling setpoints with a real dead band between them
- Optimum start and stop enabled and tuned to the fabric
- Simultaneous heating and cooling designed out at zone level
- Plant sequencing so lead machines rotate and part-load is efficient
None of that needs capital expenditure. It needs someone with access to the supervisor and a week of attention.